AER LINGUS plans to cut all flights from Shannon airport to New York and Chicago from its winter schedule in a bid to stem its mounting losses.
The Irish Timesunderstands that the controversial decision will be announced by the airline at about lunchtime today, along with plans to cut services from Dublin to Washington and San Francisco.
Aer Lingus’s decision to downgrade Shannon this winter is likely to provoke considerable anger among lobby groups in the west of Ireland, who will be fearful of the potential negative impact on investment by US companies in the region if direct links between the two are diminished.
The cuts will take effect in late October and run until March. It is not clear if the flights will be restored for the summer season. A decision will not be made for several months.
It is understood Aer Lingus will retain a service from Shannon to Boston, operating four times a week.
This will come as a major blow to Shannon airport, which handles about three million passengers a year.
The direct link with New York’s JFK airport, in particular, was seen as symbolic at Shannon.
US carrier Delta Airlines yesterday said it was pulling its scheduled transatlantic services from Shannon from October. However, the Continental Airlines route to Newark, outside New York, will continue.
Ryanair has also reduced its short-haul services at Shannon in response to a decline in consumer demand.
Aer Lingus became embroiled in a major political controversy in 2007 when it cut its daily flights from Shannon to London Heathrow and switched the valuable slots to a new base in Belfast.
This resulted in a number of redundancies at Shannon airport and led to a war of words between the airline, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, Opposition parties, trade unions and lobby groups. At that time, the Minister refused to intervene to force Aer Lingus to reverse the decision.
That decision was taken by then chief executive Dermot Mannion, who has since left Aer Lingus. Chairman Colm Barrington is likely to take the flak for the latest decision given that he has assumed executive responsibility while the search for a new chief executive continues.
Aer Lingus’s service to Heathrow was restored in March this year, with two flights a day operating between the airports. It is understood Aer Lingus is seeking to boost the Shannon-Heathrow service to three per day.
As part of the cutbacks in its Shannon and Dublin services, Aer Lingus is expected to ask staff to take unpaid leave. These decisions are part of a wide-ranging plan to cut costs at Aer Lingus, which is expected to record losses of more than €100 million this year.
In May, Aer Lingus carried just 90,000 passengers on its transatlantic services compared with 114,000 in the same month of 2008 – a decline of 21 per cent. In the year to date, traffic on these routes has declined by 14 per cent to 417,000.
Mr Barrington told shareholders at its annual general meeting last week that one in four flights between the US and Ireland was effectively flying empty. In addition, the average fare that the airline has achieved for its transatlantic services has declined sharply. Aer Lingus has had an almost continuous sale this year on long-haul flights.
In May, Aer Lingus said it was pulling six routes and three aircraft from its base in Belfast for the winter months. It is also planning to mothball one aircraft at Dublin airport.
The airline has been hit by declining consumer demand and a weak dollar affecting tourist numbers coming to Ireland from the US.